Yemen's Houthis fired missile at Saudi Aramco

Shafaq News/ Houthi, Pro-Iran Yemeni group said on Monday, it fired a missile at a distribution station operated by the Saudi Aramco oil company in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea city of Jeddah and struck it.

Saudi side did not confirm the information made by the group’s military spokesman, who warned foreign companies and residents in Saudi as “operations will continue”.

Aramco’s oil production and export facilities are mostly in Saudi’s Eastern Province, more than 1,000 km across the country from Jeddah.

A Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said the attack was carried out with a Quds-2 type winged missile.

He also posted a satellite image. Google Maps shows a facility matching that image and description on the northern outskirts of Jeddah.

“The strike was very accurate, and ambulances and fire engines rushed to the target,” Sarea said.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015 to restore the Yemeni government ousted from power in the capital Sanaa by Houthi forces in late 2014.

Cross-border attacks by Houthi forces have escalated since late May when a truce prompted by the novel coronavirus pandemic expired. The Saudi-led coalition has responded with air strikes on Houthi-held territory.

The Houthi group controls most of north Yemen and most large urban areas. They say they are fighting a corrupt system.

Sarea said the strike had been carried out in response to the Saudi-led coalition’s actions in Yemen.

Mistrust remains an obstacle to Riyadh’s attempts to prevent another front in the multifaceted war it seeks to exit, goals that have gained urgency as Yemen struggles with a coronavirus outbreak.